1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable apparatus, and more particularly, to a portable apparatus with an inward-pushing triggered mechanism for ejecting an add-on device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Nowadays, all kinds of information, data, and documents can be quickly and conveniently stored, managed, and broadcasted in digital form. Therefore, various types of information processing apparatuses for storing digital data have become imperative tools in our information society. In accordance with recent technical developments, the size and weight of the information processing apparatuses have been reduced significantly allowing them to be easily carried with the users. Many apparatuses, including mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or notebook computers are widely used.
For expanding and enlarging the functions of the portable apparatus, the portable apparatus usually operates with all kinds of add-on devices. For instance, the portable apparatus includes the battery devices to provide electric power for operations. The modern battery device is designed as a modular add-on device so that the users can remove and install the battery device by themselves to expand the operating time of the portable apparatus. In addition, other add-on devices, such as the memory card that can enlarge the capacity for storing electronic data and the wireless network card that can access the wireless network with the notebook, are also designed as the modular add-on devices to let the users install those add-on devices on the portable apparatus depending on various demands, or to let the users remove those add-on devices from the portable apparatus. For detachably installing these add-on devices, the portable apparatus are also designed with corresponding assistant mechanism, so that on the one hand the add-on devices can be fixed in the portable apparatus, and on the other hand the add-on devices can be easily removed by the corresponding assistant mechanism when the users want to remove the add-on devices.
Please refer to the FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an add-on device 14 and an ejecting machine 20 in the portable apparatus 100 of the prior art. In the present embodiment, the portable apparatus 10 is a mobile phone, and the add-on device 14 can be a battery. The ejecting machine 20 can be used to eject the add-on device 16. As shown in FIG. 1, the mobile phone 10 is covered by housings 12A and 12B. The housing 12B comprises a socket 16 for accommodating the battery 14. The ejecting machine 20 can be made by flexible plastic, and the ejecting machine 20 comprises two engaging parts 22A and 22B installed along the horizontal direction (along the direction as an arrowhead 32 shows). Two shaft bores 26A, 26B installed on the two engaging parts 22A and 22B respectively correspond to two pivots 28A, 28B installed on the housing 12B, so that the two engaging parts 22A and 22B can be rotatably installed in one side of the socket 16. There is a banding part connected between the two engaging parts 22A and 22B, and a protruding part of the banding part forms a contact face 16. When the battery 14 is installed in the socket 16, a bottom of the battery 14 will adjoin a bottom 18 of the socket 16. Moreover, the contact face 16 is co-planar with the bottom 18 of the socket 16, and the contact face 16 will contact an adjoining face 31 of the bottom of the battery 14.
Please refer to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing all the components of the mobile phone 10 after the battery 14 is installed in the mobile phone 10 (for the sake of clarity, the housing 12A is not shown in FIG. 2). The attached figure, FIG. 2B, is a three-dimensional diagram showing the battery 14 installed in the socket 16 and the attached figure, FIG. 2A, is a cross-sectional diagram of FIG. 2 along the cross line 2Axe2x80x942A (dotted line 33 is used for marking the position of the side view of the battery 14). The attached figure, FIG. 2C, further describes the condition as shown in FIG. 2A by neglecting the housing 12B and the battery 14. When the battery 14 is installed in the socket 16, the bottom 18 of the socket 16 is co-planar with the contact face 16 of the ejecting machine 20, and the bottom 18 of the socket 16 will adjoin the bottom of the battery 14.
When the user wants to take the battery 14 from the socket 16, the user can push two engaging parts of the ejecting machine 20 outward from the socket 16, and the ejecting machine 20 will eject the battery 14 to let the user conveniently take out the battery 14. Please refer to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing all the components of the mobile phone 10 when the battery 14 is ejected from the mobile phone 10. The attached figure, FIG. 3B, is a three-dimensional diagram showing the battery 14 ejected from the socket 16, and the attached figure, FIG. 3A, is a cross-sectional diagram of FIG. 3 along the cross line 3Axe2x80x943A (dotted line 33 is used for marking the position of the side view of the battery 14). The attached figure, FIG. 3C, clearly describes the operations of the ejecting machine 20 by neglecting the housing 12B and the battery 14 as shown in FIG. 3B. When the user wants to take out the battery 14, the user can push the two engaging parts 24A and 24B outward from the socket 16 (namely the direction as an arrowheads 36a and 36b show) to respectively rotate those two engaging parts 24A and 24B along the pivots 28A and 28B, and the banding part between those two engaging parts 24A and 24B will be lifted upward (namely the direction as an arrowhead 34 shows). The contact face 16 will separate one side of the battery 14 from the bottom 18 of the sockets 16 to let the user conveniently take out the battery 14.
A disadvantage of the above-mentioned prior art is that the user has to simultaneously push both of the engaging parts 22A and 22B of the ejecting machine 20 outward from the socket 16 to trigger the ejecting machine 20 for ejecting the battery 14. Regarding ergonomics, it is hard for the user to simultaneously move both of the engaging parts with a single hand. Therefore, in the prior art, the user must hold the housing 12B with two hands and simultaneously push the engaging parts 22A and 22B respectively with the thumbs of the left and right hands to trigger the ejecting machine 20 for ejecting the battery 14. Regarding all kinds of situations related to forcing with various gestures with fingers, the clamping force with a thumb and a forefinger is larger. In the prior art, since the engaging parts 22A and 22B have to be pushed outward from the socket 16, it is hard for the user to achieve necessary clamping force using fingers of a single hand. Therefore, the user usually has to trigger the ejecting machine 20 with both hands at great inconvenience. Moreover, since the user has to use both hands to install the battery 14 and can hardly control the position of the battery 14 when ejecting the battery 14 with the ejecting mechanism 20, the battery 14 is easily damaged.
In the prior art, the engaging parts of the ejecting machine has to be outwardly triggered so that the user has to trigger the ejecting machine with both hands, leading to inconvenience. Therefore, the ejecting machine of the prior art does not have a good ergonomic design.
It is therefore a primary objective of the claimed invention to provide an inward-pushing triggered mechanism for ejecting add-on device to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art.
According to the claimed invention, the portable apparatus comprises a housing, a socket installed on the housing for accommodating an add-on device, wherein the socket comprises a bottom formed in horizontal direction, and an ejecting mechanism installed in one side of the socket. The ejecting mechanism comprises an engaging part installed in one end of the socket by rotating along a pivot, wherein the engaging part comprises a first port and a second port respectively installed in the opposite sides of the pivot, a connecting port installed in the other end of the socket opposite to the engaging part so that the second port and the connecting port are respectively installed in the opposite ends of the bottom, a flexible band installed along the horizontal direction, wherein one end of the flexible band is connected to the second port of the engaging part, and the other end of the flexible band is connected to the connecting port. The flexible band comprises a contact face that is installed between the two ends of the flexible band, and the add-on device comprises a joint face corresponding to the contact face. When the add-on device is installed inside that socket, position of the joint face of the add-on device corresponds to position of the contact face of the flexible band. When the first port of the engaging part is pushed toward the socket, the engaging part will rotate along the pivot to make the second port is pushed outward from the socket and to straighten the flexible band so that the contact face of the flexible band moves upward along vertical direction and the add-on device will be ejected from the bottom along vertical direction.
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the ejecting machine also comprises rotatable engaging parts and flexible bands for providing an inward-pushing mechanism to let the user easily eject the add-on device with a single hand.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, which is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.